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If you have received a letter from Proven Reserves with a notice code, click here.

Letters to Surface Owners

As a surface owner you might have questions regarding the future application. Please feel free to contact Proven Reserves Exploitation Ltd.

Below are some commonly asked questions:

What is a holding? 

Proven’s clients have to apply for a holding when they want to deviate from the standard AER regulations.  This includes drilling more then one well in a section, closer to a boundary of a section or closer to another well. Therefore Proven applies on behalf of our client to the AER for a holding application in a section of land.

What is commingling?

A single well can segregate produce gas and/or oil from different geological formation. When segregated production becomes uneconomical or physically impossible, service company requests permission from the AER to produce the hydrocarbons together or commingled via a commingle application.

Commingling happens when production from different geological formation or zones is combined inside the well and then produced. In this method, the AER does not know exactly where the production is coming from but at least that production is not lost. Commingling can be from both within the same pool or from different pools in the wellbore.

What is downspacing?

Downspacing is changing or reducing the size of the standard Drill Spacing Unit (DSU) for the purpose of oil or gas production. The standard DSU for a gas well is one section and one-quarter section for an oil well. Reduced DSU’s may be applied for to the AER to improve the recovery of oil and gas from a pool.

Why do oil companies need more wells?

Imagine you had a pressurized Olympic swimming pool filled with concrete and oil, and you want to produce the oil. You would probably need a couple of wells to produce the oil from this “pool”.

Often, a standard drilling spacing unit is not capable of draining all the hydrocarbons available due to the lack of reservoir continuity. Thus, oil companies need more wells in order to produce hydrocarbons in the most effective manner possible. Remember, these hydrocarbons can be located as deep as 1000 meters and most of these reservoirs are less porous and permeable than concrete.